item
Basics of the Christian view of creation
- Lemma
- Основи на християнския възглед за творението
- Bulgarian
- Nachev, Ivaylo
- Complementarity
- 1-12-2008
- Велчев, Тодор [Author]. Basics of the Christian view of creation
- Харта (harta-bg)
- dialogue - limitations of human knowledge - biblical tradition
- 2016/12/14
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The author, a university professor in physics, sketched some fundamentals in the relations between science and religion aiming this text to be the basis for further discussion. Todor Velchev is presented as a participant in many public debates, during which he supported the Christian view on various issues concerning science and culture.
In the item Velchev first referred to "traditional Christian thought", distinguishing two ways in which God reveals himself to man: through nature and through the Bible, the first allowing scientific knowledge, the second – theological (or the "Two Books of Revelation"). Being revelations of the same, perfect and unchanging God, they should support each other without any conflict. The tensions between science and faith begin to occur with the “amazing success” of scientific knowledge in the 16th – 17th century, in his opinion.
The author distinguished three types of response in the Catholic and Protestant world to this tension: protestant liberalism (scientific knowledge has higher authority), neo-Orthodox (there is no direct link between scientific and theological knowledge) and fundamentalism (theology has higher authority than scientific knowledge). All three approaches seem unconvincing not only because they fall into one extreme or another, but also because they mix the objectives and the language of the Two Books.
Analyzing the aims of the biblical writers, Velchev pointed out that they did not intend to describe how nature is structured, but their focus was rather on the relations “God-creation” and “God-man”. In addition, they use the phenomenological and poetical language which is typical for the pre-scientific epoch, so in the Bible there could be no analogue with the modern scientific concepts. Furthermore, the Biblical authors were in dispute with the pagan notions about the divine and not with the modern scientific theories.
The author also argued that the biblical story gives us principles for a Christian view, by which we can judge the findings of scientific theories. In his opinion the Two Books are in harmony. Scientific knowledge is insufficient to get to know the true God, while the Bible does not give us sufficient knowledge about the universe and nature.
According to Velchev, modern science is based on a Christian worldview, on a number of “Christian prerequisites”, including the idea that nature is subject to the universal and rational laws as a creation of a powerful and wise God.
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